Added Value Through Architecture and Building Culture in the Lake Constance Region – Sustainable Strategies in the Field of the Creative Economy

Project discription

The aim of this study is to provide an industry-specific analysis of the importance and added value of architecture for the Lake Constance region. It explores in which creative ecosystems architects and craft businesses of the building industry are embedded and under which circumstances they become drivers for both regional and global innovation. For this purpose, the impulsive effects of architectural projects will be investigated with regard to cultural, social, ecological and economic developments. The central questions of this research project are: Which kind of added-value does architecture create for the Lake Constance region? What influence does the building culture have on identity formations within the region? How do architects and creative professionals act within the entire economic complex? Where are the corresponding knowledge and innovation clusters located? As the second-largest branch of the creative economy in the Lake Constance region, architecture is particularly qualified for analysis. As a competition-driven industry, architecture makes an important impact on sustainable management approaches as well as spatial and technological development. Against the background of structural change, architecture also plays a key role in the region's cultural self-images. The empirical basis for this international research project is assessed by a statistical research approach combined with a qualitative approach consisting of a series of case studies, network and stakeholder analyses. The involvement of local stakeholders from the Lake Constance region serves as an analytical framework to explore practices of value attribution from an internal perspective and to discuss them against the background of regional self-images. Due to the close cooperation with local actors, the project puts a focus on the communal strategies for the implementation and cultural appropriation of architecture. It thus offers a more pluralistic approach to understanding creative economies and the added value processes for the region.

Project Management at ZU

• Prof. Dr. Karen van den Berg | Zeppelin University, Chair of Art Theory & Curating
  
• Dr. des. Eva Zepp | Zeppelin University, Chair of Art Theory & Curating
  

Project partner

• Janine Schiller, lic.phil.; MAS ETH gta | Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (Management of the overall project)
  
• Dr. sc. Clarissa Rhomberg | University of Liechtenstein, Institute of Architecture and Planning 

Project duration
01.01.2020 to 31.12.2021

Funding
IBH